Chemical industry unites on global standard for calculating carbon emissions to create “level playing field”

26 Sep 2022 --- Thirty-seven chemical industry companies, including BASF, have agreed on a global standard for estimating product carbon footprints (PCFs), as part of the collaborative initiative “Together for Sustainability” (TfS) with the aim of facilitating uniformity. 

The new TfS guideline for PCFs gives detailed calculation instructions for carbon emissions from the moment chemicals are produced to when they enter the stores. PCFs are said to be vital for directing emissions in the value chain.

The guideline unifies PCF calculation methods used throughout different sectors and is relevant to the great majority of chemical goods produced, especially those used in the packaging sector.

This guideline would make it possible for businesses in the packaging sphere and other markets to directly compare and evaluate the climate impact of products, as environmental sustainability becomes a growing area of concern in the packaging industry.

According to Innova Market Insights, nearly 40% of global consumers actively search for traceability information on packaging. This finding highlights the high consumer demand for honest environmental sustainability claims, calling attention to the necessity of this standardization.

Dr. Christoph Jäkel, vice president of corporate sustainability at BASF, explains that “this industry-wide agreement among leading global chemical and process industry manufacturers as members of TfS brings us a big step closer to achieving unrestricted comparability of product carbon footprints and, therefore, a level playing field within the chemical industry.”

“We at BASF are proud to contribute to this guideline through our pioneering work in PCF calculation and methodology over the past years,” he says.Nearly 40% of global consumers actively search for traceability information on packs.

Affording methodology
With suppliers, clients, and competitors alike, BASF has been transparently discussing its PCF calculation methodology. While being more prescriptive and particular to the chemical sector, this methodology is in line with the pertinent ISO standards and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Product Standard.

Furthermore, BASF has been making its digital solution for calculating product carbon footprints available in the market by licensing it to software houses, with the express intention of enabling the industry to do carbon accounting at scale and support PCF data transparency.

“We now have an even more wide-reaching and comprehensive guideline to assess the PCFs of chemical materials in a consistent fashion that has been jointly developed and officially endorsed by many global leaders in the chemical industry,” says Dr. Peter Saling, director of sustainability methods at BASF and chair for the guideline development at TfS.

Carbon emission efforts
BASF’s carbon emission reduction efforts have been prominent in the packaging sphere, as the company also recently purchased pyrolysis oil derived from mixed plastic waste from Arcus Greencycling Technologies, a German technology company.

Through a framework agreement, the two companies want to contribute their respective know-how to the value chain to return plastic waste that is not recycled mechanically and thereby reduce CO2 emissions.

Arcus produces pyrolysis oil from mixed plastic waste with Germany’s “first of its kind” process demonstration unit and the company will supply BASF with pyrolysis oil and expand its capacities in the coming years.

BASF, in return, will use the oil in its production plants as a raw material for the production of its chemically recycled “Ccycled” products. 

By Mieke Meintjes

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